State lawmakers get back to work today with only a few weeks left to wrap up hundreds of bills, ranging from term-limits and redistricting reform to proposals for new prisons to restructuring the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Just off a monthlong summer recess, lawmakers face an Aug. 31 deadline for action on everything from minimum-wage increases and creating cable competition to reducing global warming.

Adding more fuel to the frenzy will be the fact that it marks the end of a two-year session, so unlike last August, bills that are not acted upon this month will not automatically return in January.

“It’s going to be a hot August,” said state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-East Los Angeles. “If bills don’t get votes now, they die.”

In addition, almost half the state lawmakers are termed out or not seeking re-election, meaning this is their last crack at bills they may have worked on for years.

“The end of session is a frenzy because legislators are like all human beings and are prone to procrastination,” said Tim Hodson, executive director of the Center for California Studies at Cal State Sacramento.

It’s also an election year and so the stakes are high for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and any legislators facing tough races, Romero said.

Schwarzenegger’s proposed prison construction plan is likely to take the center stage. But local legislators say they will need more information before taking a stand.

Much of the debate will focus on the governor’s effort to build two new prisons, expand community correctional facilities, adding as many as 50,000 prison beds, Romero said.

“We don’t have the details, but we can’t build ourselves out of this prison crisis,” she said. “To build without correcting and focusing on rehabilitation is a bit nonsensical.”

Still, there needs to be action, said Junay Gardner Logan, chief of staff for Assemblyman Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, who was out of town Friday and unavailable for comment.

“It needs to be dealt with because of overcrowding,” Logan said. “Something has to be done.”

But legislators also are concerned about a high price tag – it could be as much as

$6 million, Logan said.

Assemblyman Rudy Bermudez, D-Norwalk, who did not return several phone calls last week, is expected to introduce the governor’s package of bills on prison construction.

In Whittier, the issue hits home. The now-closed Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Facility was set to be sold to a private developer on July 14, but state officials abruptly halted the sale. Now, they say, Nelles might be considered as a site for a future prison, or for some other use by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

It remains uncertain whether the legislation will deal with Nelles.

Along with prisons, among the more controversial pieces of legislation to be addressedthis month includes Assembly Bill 1381 by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nu ez, D-Los Angeles, which will determine who will control the Los Angeles Unified School District – the district’s school board or Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

“It’s probably the most difficult issue,” said Assemblywoman Judy Chu, D-Monterey Park. ” has not been fully cooked and people are waiting for the final version.”

But the Assembly Democratic leadership cares deeply about the proposal, Chu said.

Republicans are more reluctant. They would like to put a measure on the ballot that would split up the Los Angeles district, said state Sen. Bob Margett, R-Glendora.

“One of the concerns Republicans have is that you have a duly elected group who is supposed to be running the district and then you jerk away from that,” Margett said.

Another controversial move is Democrats’ efforts to get a minimum wage increase that includes automatic indexing of future increases to inflation. Schwarzenegger supports an increase without indexing, and is looking to circumvent the Legislature by passing an increase through the state Industrial Welfare Commission.

A proposal to provide driver’s licenses to undocumented residents also could be a hot issue this session, Margett said.

“The aspect of using it as an identifier is my big concern,” he said.

Legislators also are considering whether to place measures on the ballot to ease term limits for state officeholders.

Schwarzenegger has indicated he would be interested if there was also a measure to reform the drawing of legislative boundaries so the lawmakers themselves would no longer choose their own lines.

Chu identified global warming as another issue that could surface in the next 3<MD+,%30,%55,%70>1/<MD-,%0,%55,%70>2 weeks.

“It’s very timely considering the hot weather we’ve had,” she said.

In addition to the overriding issues, each legislator will be trying to push his or her own bills through, Chu said.

As chairwoman of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, Chu will help determine the fate of an estimated 350 bills over the next two weeks.

“There are so many different issues people care very deeply about,” she said.

Mike Sprague started at the Whittier Daily News in April 1984. Since then, Sprague has covered every city in the Whittier Daily News circulation area, as well as political and water issues. Sprague received a bachelor's degree in communications and a master's degree in political science, both from Cal State Fullerton.

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